Pickens miffed by NBC's rejection of 'Iran' ad

[Quicksilver]

In the 15-second ad entitled "Iran," Pickens says: Iran is changing its cars to run on natural gas and we're not doing a thing here."

"They're doing this to use less oil and sell it for a $120 a barrel. We can switch our cars to natural gas and stop sending our dollars to foreign countries,"

NBC Universal did not immediately return calls for comment.

Pickens, a frequent commentator on NBC Universal's cable business channel, CNBC, said in a letter to NBC Universal Chief Executive Jeff Zucker that the ad aimed to educate the public.

"We are puzzled by your decision not to run this ad because by not running it, you are selectively applying the First Amendment and denying your viewers access to information that is important to their education and understanding of the issue of energy independence," the letter said.

[AzX5]

I don't see anything wrong with the ad. Is he lying?

[Thunder22]

the american public has absolutely NO CLUE how much it would cost to put in the infrastructure to have CNG "gas stations" installed around the US, which is obviously significantly bigger than Iran in terms of populated areas and # of cars.

That's why that commercial is ridiculous.

It's a misleading economy of scale commercial that only the naive and uneducated would watch and say "yeah! what about that!"

ridiculous.

[AzX5]

And your plan would be what exactly?
------------------------------------

For this plan to work several big, expensive things have to happen, but there’s no reason why they can’t. (The good news is all of the necessary technology is already commercially available.)

First, entrepreneurs and utilities will have to install enough wind turbines to provide all the electricity currently generated by natural gas. Replacing natural gas derived electrons with wind-generated ones will require the fabrication and installation of 100,000 to 200,000 wind turbines. Pickens estimates that getting this array in place will cost $1 trillion. He also thinks that utilities and independent electricity suppliers will be willing to pay it, because of the money they’d save from not having to buy natural gas. Since most are already signing up to build wind farms, chances are he’s right.

Second, the nation’s electric power grid would have to be expanded and upgraded in order to get wind-generated power to market and to shift it around quickly in response to where the wind is and isn’t blowing at any given moment. Pickens estimates this would require a $200 billion investment, also to come from the private sector.

Third, the world’s auto companies would have to start mass-producing cars and trucks fueled by compressed natural gas (CNG). Fortunately, such vehicles are already in production, and some 8 million have been produced (albeit fewer than 150,000 of them are in the U.S.). CNG powered vehicles are essentially existing cars and trucks with a different fuel system, so they don’t cost much more to make than conventional vehicles, and production could be increased quickly if the demand for them materialized.
And, given the fact that domestic natural gas is considerably cheaper than imported crude (natural gas was selling at the equivalent of 61 cents a gallon gasoline in Salt Lake City a couple weeks ago, and about a third less than an equivalent gallon of gasoline in California) demand could well materialize.

Fourth, the country has to have sufficiently large natural-gas reserves to justify making a long-term commitment to using it as a transportation fuel, even taking into account that the Pickens Plan is only intends to shift gas now used for production or electricity to transportation. There’s not much point spending $1 trillion to make that shift if the country starts running short of natural gas in a few years.

Fortunately, oil companies are currently finding new reserves of domestic natural gas faster than we are using up old ones. How much faster? A story in Monday’s New York Times quotes a research associate with the Louisiana Geological Survey as suggesting that just two recent gas discoveries, one in northern Louisiana and Texas and one in Pennsylvania and New York State, could double U.S. gas reserves.

Fifth, service stations would have to install natural gas dispensers. That could be expensive, but at least the infrastructure for delivering the gas to most stations is already in place. It’s a pipe in the street. And Pickens also has a plan for covering the cost of building natural gas dispensing islands. Station owners could first contract to supply natural gas to commercial vehicle fleets, which means they would have a guaranteed customer base.

Pickens’ will cheerfully admit his plan isn’t perfect and welcomes suggested improvements, but at least he has a plan to cut oil imports. That’s more than can be said of the Federal Government and its dysfunctional Congress.

http://www.boulderweekly.com/20080731/danishplan.html